


The one who intends to live forever

by Anteroinen



Category: Submachine
Genre: F/M, Pre-Sub7 AU, Wisdom Gems Give Superpowers AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-05
Updated: 2017-02-05
Packaged: 2018-09-22 06:35:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9589097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anteroinen/pseuds/Anteroinen
Summary: Elizabeth Waver is called in by her old friend Murtaugh to take care of his cat Einstein with a curious old note. Upon arrival he shows her something quite surprising.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This story was originally created several years ago, I believe even before the release of Submachine 7, though I might be mistaken about that. This story was never really even started, let alone brought to any sort of a satisfying conclusion, but I decided to post it in here anyway.
> 
> The later installments made the story of the piece not make sense anyway. I used personal head-canons about Wisdom Gems quite freely.

A woman named Elizabeth drove her bike to the yard of the lighthouse. His friend, Murtaugh had written to her. She hadn’t heard much of him since last summer. That guy... asking her to take care of his cat like this. And that talk about dimensional pathways… what was that about? Had he created teleportation? Elizabeth was curious to say the least, but it also worried her. Was her friend going insane?

She walked through the yard and knocked the door. It had one of those old-fashioned knockers that she wasn’t awfully fond of. For one it always took eons before someone heard the sound of the knocker and besides they looked creepy. Not this one though. Why has nobody else thought of making a butterfly knocker? Elizabeth glanced over her shoulder to the open sea. She had really like this place as a child. When she and Murtaugh had been just kids they had discovered most of the hiding places of the lighthouse. The old lighthouse keeper, Bert Redburn, had had a hard time chasing after them. Maybe it was just natural that Murtaugh took his post now, after that summer. And the trip.

Then the door opened. Without a squeak, may I add, Murtaugh really had done his job well. Her friend was at the door, holding a black cat she knew to be called Einstein. Ever since that summer, ever since that trip, ever since that accident, had Murtaugh had only his right arm. He had brown wild hair and glasses that might someday create a mad scientist impression.

“Hi Liz!” the man with one arm greeted her. “Come in, please,” she didn't have to be tempted, for it was cold outside. 

“Mur! It is so nice to see you again. How have you been?”

“Well, this place isn’t exactly a tourist attraction, but somebody passes by now and then. Steady income though. Old man O’Toole is out of his mind with the payment. I suspect he is a little cuckoo,” Murtaugh said and smiled. “Oh, and I’ve also got Einstein ready for you. Keep an eye on him; I suspect that he might try to disappear.”

“Why?”, Elizabeth asked while hanging her jacket to the coat rack. She glared at the small living kitchen while Murtaugh told her how Einstein had appeared out of nowhere one day. The kitchen was almost exactly the same as she remembered it. The walls had perhaps had a new layer of paint, but no new additions had been made. Not ones the naked eye could see anyways.

Murtaugh had prepared tea which they drank and remember their past, and also the new theories about the space-time he had. They both had always been interested in that sort of thing, but Murtaugh was the one to do the experiments. Elizabeth saw that he was hiding something; by a word, did he not mention his new machine that could break the barrier of space. She decided to cut to the chase.

“So, would you bother showing this new “dimensional pathway” of yours to me?” she said “You know I am dying to see what you have made up this time. I can’t believe one of your contraptions actually worked this time around!”

Murtaugh laughed, “Contraptions you say? Well, I guess you’re right. My earlier works, should one exaggerate them as such, have been contraptions, but now, after my trip, I have succeeded. But… well… it isn’t machine in a sense. Actually, it is not a machine in any sense. The thing that broke my arm, that log, it left a mark on me. A mark you can’t see. That anybody can’t see.”

“What do you mean?”

“Liz… I did not really lose an arm. I gained a new one. Admittedly I lost one, so what is the difference in the end?”, he said and stared blankly into the distance. “I can feel it.”

“That is just ghost p-“, she started, but was silenced. Murtaugh’s sleeve, his empty left sleeve, rose up and waved at her. 

“Midnight. Ghosts.” said Murtaugh and winked at her.

***

Murtaugh had left. He had pushed his left arm – his “Karma Arm” – against the red brick wall (he had shown her the old ruins) and it just… melted away under his palm. While formed into a dark space and he looked at her and said; “Bye. I’ll be back in thirty two days. If not, get out of here. Don’t let it get you. Please.”, and then he was gone.

Elizabeth looked at the black cat in her lap. It purred quietly. She petted its head, and climbed out of the damp cellar. Then she climbed out of the bathroom and went to prepare something to eat before going to sleep.

***

It had been ten days since Murtaugh had disappeared into the darkness. Elizabeth took a book from the shelf and turned on the lamp. It was an Agatha Christie, _'A Pocket Full of Rye'_. She had read it before, but it wasn’t like Mur had the Royal Library in his attic so she just had to gobble it up. The book was good in itself, but what she found between the pages was far more surprising and was to give her a lot more excitement than a dusty old book.

There was a hairclip inside that book. It was made from some sort of semi-transparent, grey jewel. It had some random runes scribbled on it. It wasn’t a very fine piece of jewelry, but it certainly was unique among the other jewelry in this small town. With the clip, Elizabeth found a piece of paper torn out of a notebook. She moved her eyes to the text and read;

_“I did it! Finally I managed to find the tools to mold the Gems so that they don’t break. The trial and error paid off, although I am now a tad poorer, 32 grand to be exact. To craft objects from wisdom gems, you need reinforced wood tools. The released karma will annihilate everything else. It seems that the gems structure transforms the destructive karma energy and turns it into an attractive opposite force. If we lived in a universe with this energy only, our universe wouldn’t eventually fall into a state of Chaos, but instead turn into a structure of complete Order. The karma that got stuck into the space of my arm… It is a strong destructive force. If I don’t do something it will destroy me. In future I will use wisdom objects to keep myself intact. I tested this clip and it does work, I can create stable portals with it, even more so than with just the power of karma. I will create something else for future use though… Perhaps a new pair of glasses? “_

Elizabeth looked at the clip on her hand. This clip had the power to ‘create portals’? Hah! She scoffed and stared at the piece of jewelry. The machinery anywhere can’t break space-time and this crappy hairclip can?! This is blasphemy, if not something worse. 

Then Elizabeth’s mental turmoil got interrupted by a loud demanding meow. It came from the kitchen. That cat could drive a lunatic crazy, she thought and ran downstairs and put the clip into her hair. Einstein was everywhere. In cupboards, on top of shelves, in the sewers… She had got lost for two days while looking for Einstein in those damn sewers.   
This time around she found the damn cat inside the kitchen cupboard. Not only that but he was in the flour box. _How does he do it?_

***

Elizabeth opened her eyes and stood up in her bed. She found Einstein sleeping as a fuzzy ball in her feet. The ball snored quietly. Looking out of the window, she could see that it was snowing. In fact, it was more of an avalanche than anything else. The village, the sea, everything was obscured by the white blur. Elizabeth sighed; this means more housework.

After washing her teeth and eating breakfast (eggs and a piece of cauliflower) Liz took out the snow pusher and started cleaning the front of the lighthouse. George O’Toole may be a fool with the payment, but he sure is strict about the condition of the lighthouse. The snow began to drift quite quickly, as she shoveled and shoveled. And it was still snowing. Nothing is more depressing than shoveling snow, while it is snowing.

At least she could ponder about yesterday. While searching more of the bookcase, she had found other notes. Some were so technical that she couldn’t get much out of them. On the other hand some were clearly written to Murtaugh himself and didn’t explain anything accurately at all. Elizabeth had already gathered that Murtaugh was going off exploring regularly, but he had worried about Einstein too much to leave the lighthouse for extended periods of time. Now he had got the chance… Elizabeth felt a slight wave of envy.

Elizabeth certainly couldn’t understand much of the note about the energies Murtaugh kept referring to. Karma, Wisdom… these are concepts of religion not science. And further more… what the Hell is a "Submachine"?

***

Einstein the cat looked out of the window as the madwoman went back and forth with the pusher. What an imbecile, he thought, no cat in their right senses would go out there without eight ultimatums. It was so much nicer to sit on the window sill and let the heater warm you throughout.

Taking a last final glance out of the window, Einstein stood up and loosened up his muscles. A walk to the cup proved itself futile; the madwoman had forgotten to feed him yet again. How infuriating, how totally unacceptable, how… hold that thought.

A black cat ran up the lighthouse stairs and caught an unfortunate fly on the top stair. Then the cat turned around and the stairway was left totally empty.

***

“I give up ”, she exclaimed and threw the pusher to the snowbanks. The drifts of snow were now almost a meter high, after she had worked on them for an hour. She was cold, hungry and frustrated. There was no point going on with this before it stopped snowing so she turned to go inside, but she was stopped by a sound of some calling out for her.  
It was the town’s mailman, Mr. McDane. Mr. McDane was an old, crooked man, who knew everything about everyone. He was always in a bad mood, even if it was sunshine. Now he had all the reason to be grumpy however, it wasn’t a pleasure to work in these conditions. Elizabeth sure as hell knew that.

“Good evening, Keeper”, said the man behind his fuzzy white eyebrows. As he recognized Elizabeth, the right piece of jungle rose up slightly. “Well, what do we have here… Miss Waver, what brings you here?”

“Mur is away for a couple of days, so I am taking care of his duties while he is gone. Why do you ask, oh honorable geezer”, she with a slightly insolent smiled on her face. She had teased often teased McDane with Murtaugh when they were both young. 

The short man grunted and said,” The Keeper has got mail. It isn’t from this village; there are quite a number of stamps on it. Now, Miss Waver, would why that be? Has the Keeper gotten himself into some sort of,” he said and made an intentional, dramatic pause, ”trouble?”

“Not that I am aware, no”, Elizabeth said with a voice that she entrusted with all the coldness she had in her. But did that work? No, not with Bert “Job” McDane, he held his attacking position firmly. 

“Then what do you suggest?”

“Are you implying something McDane?”

“No, not at all. It is just that your friend has been acting a little odd these couple of months. Some people enter the lighthouse only to disappear for days until appearing in random locations across the country. The Keeper on the other hand… stationary. He has been living like a hermit for some months now. You should be careful. I’ve heard even the cat has gone weird in here.”

“Are you saying that Mur is behind these disappearances?”

“No, I just simply-“

“Were poking your big nose onto other people’s business! Now, shoo. Shoo! Be gone!”, Liz said and shook her fist.

The postman looked at her, infuriated, but turned away regardless. “Fine, it is your life thrown away anyways,” he said before vanishing to the blizzard and leaving Elizabeth standing in the snowstorm.

***

A couple of days later, after some more exhausting snowpushing, Elizabeth grabbed yet another one of his friend’s notes and started reading. This one would… well… you’ll see. It had many drawings on it, most looked like attempts to create optical illusions. The text made even less sense;

_“You know the pattern of colors you see when you close your eyes? All those different formations and shapes inside your head. They are pretty much the same ones for everyone. Or not. I’m not certain. One in particular, the one with grey background and green, red and yellow dots is fascinating. The karma can break through it. I can travel anywhere if I rip through it. Scientists never realized that they have most likely all seen the fabric of reality in their sleep. Yet they spend millions of dollars just to find it. What a waste.”_

At this point Liz would have had to turn the page, but the notes had been lying all over the place so she couldn’t do it very easily. She found a page about the same subject which read;

_“First comes the tunnel, then you see the black and yellow swirls. Then it gets randomized. The figures can include just flashes of light or like this time blue spots on red surface. The subject is truly fascinating. Usually I can only rip space when spots appear, but today I could peel of the yellow swirls too! USE THE HAIR CLIP!”_

While this sounded like muttering of a lunatic, this wasn’t the case. If you close your eyes, the light that still gets through will make you see some patterns. If you press your eyes you might see some other formations too. Yet connecting it with fabric of space is far-fetched. Elizabeth thought about the last phrase. _Use the hairclip_? 

It couldn’t hurt to try. Liz closed her eyes. She saw the red tunnel Murtaugh had mentioned, but nothing happened. She was just about to open her eyes as she saw something. A bright blue light glided down her field of vision, and disappeared. It wasn’t the only one though. 

At least twenty different lights moved back and forth forming a delicate jigsaw puzzle. She could move the pieces… one by one… The pathway opened. 

She could see it.

She was through.

***

And the snow just kept coming. 

**Author's Note:**

> "Midnight. Ghosts." was a reference to a forum meme way back around 2010, originating from Cone. 
> 
> The more you know!


End file.
